Surreal Handscapes is a lesson I had admired from my mentor, but was always scared to try with my classes. This lesson combined landscapes, surrealism, and hands all in one. This unit is a graphite unit and being a ceramics person I get nervous when teaching shading. I broke it up into small mini lessons, and I think it came out OK. Next time I will try to get the point across to incorporate more of the hand into the picture rather than the hand sticking out so much like it would regularly be portrayed in real life. Some were successful with this, but overall the shading is what I was worried about and for an Intro class it wasn't too shabby!

Here is how I broke down my lesson to get to the final product: 1. Introduce Shading, and Drawing techniques: We learned about stippling, hatching, etc. and practiced with gray scales. We also worked on contour, blind contour, and gesture drawings of our hands. To finish off shading we spent half a class using marshmallows as still life's to work on gradually showing shading. By the end they will know how to draw hands and shade with several techniques.2. Introduce Surrealism and Landscapes I show a power point in surrealism and artist which gradually leads into Tim Burton, his style of work and landscape vocabulary. We spend the next few days drawing surreal images3.Tying in hands Once students have understood surrealism and landscapes we combine everything we have learned which the end result is a Surreal Handscape.

SO I am halfway through "break" and waiting for a day to just exhale. People look at me like i am nuts because I work on break... A LOT (already been to the classroom 4 times), but I have to or I will be even farther behind. Some of the things I have to finish are time sensitive. A mural, lesson planing, samples, website work.. all very time consuming. All I want to do though it paint, blog, and finish season one of the Mindy Project. This next semester terrifies me. I am coaching, presenting at NAEA, Maid of Honor at a wedding, starting my masters program, and am on way too many committees, and have a student teacher which really is a positive. I have to learn to say NO. No No No No. SO I am done with my rant, onto positivity and getting things done!

So I am officially on Christmas break, whatever that means because I have my break already scheduled for me. I have a student teacher to meet with, a hot date with a mural on campus and about 5o hands to fire in the kiln and that's just the tip of the iceberg ha ha. I don't know where exactly October went much less September, but I wanted to share what I did for our Fall break... maybe next post we can tackle Thanksgiving or even the Gingerbread house party I am having tonight.

My husband, mother and I were very fortunate to take my nephew to Disneyland and we had so much fun. Disney in October is AMAZING. I would never pay to trick or treat there again after hours, but it was still a great time! We even got to meet up with some family. Enjoy the pictures and my awful faces on rides that shouldn't scare me.

We had a great time and this picture my nephew took even made our Christmas card!

Man do I get this question a lot. What works for you, how do you wrangle 35-40 Junior High kids, even the ones that are taller than you lol.... Everyone is different, you have to do things that are comfortable for you. Things my mentor would say to the kids I could never because I simply didn't have the life experience or mothering tact to. But I will tell you what I tell most people:

Don't try to be someone that your not - If your young, own it and use it.. trying to be rigid if your not that person won't work.. and the kids will smell it on you! Often times I use humor for minor things. If I have to get serious they know and often times I don't have to yell to get the message across.Procedures- Cannot stress how important this is. Have them from day one. Reinforce them strong at the beginning and they will be effortless by the end. An example is cleaning procedures in my room. We have clean and dirty rags, soapy spray bottles for the tables... everyone does something. I don't tally or have assigned jobs. They know we are a community and if we don't all pitch in, we all won't leave. Simple as that. They also need to know you will check their work. Yes they watch me physically check my counters before they can go.

Plant Seeds- Kids need to know you don't just call for the bad. I try to figure out which ones could potentially be problems. I call home and let their parents know they are appreciated in my class. If you have had problems recently with a child find one thing you like about them, and I know it can be hard at times, but lt them know or give them a happy graham... even if they don't deserve it.- I also think it's fair to let the kids know if I am calling home. I also make sure they know I will not leave a message so don't try and delete it.. I will try until I get a a hold of someone.Change- Don't fear it... sometimes things don't work and thats ok, roll with it. I have had new lessons that were a flop. I own it and work my butt off to make it work even better, the kids will see your efforts.It OK to apologize- Sometimes you lose your temper, or are just completely wrong.. we are human and the kids need to see that. Apologize. They will respect you more for it.

Teach how you want to be taught- If the kids see your enthused they will want to learn from your excitement. You are the biggest salesperson for you job, own it. Sometimes when lesson planning I work backwards.. I see the end product on Pinterest or at a museum, or someone else did it. Then I try it, if I love it I write it up if it's a bust then I don't do it.. I have to do it as much as the kids!

Hope this helps. This is my humble opinion of course but if it helps anyone I am glad. Remember you don't want people to think your mean because your an alien!

Not many people knew what my New Year's resolution was, because I wanted to keep it personal. Mine was to stay on my healthy track and run more 5k's. Well my plan was to run one every month but in Arizona its cooler to run in hell than outside in this heat. But I have done 5 this year, which is 5 more than I did last year, and I am proud of that. This past one was really fun though!

Color me rad was probably one of the most entertaining 5k's I have been apart of! There was music, costumes, and checkpoints where you get completely covered in color.

My friend and I before the race.......

and myself after! It was a blast!!! If you get an opportunity to do a themed 5k... DO IT! They are so much fun!